Better late than never: as the catastrophic harms of our society-wide experiment in ubiquitous digital porn becomes clear, governments are finally, slowly, taking action. It isn’t enough. Not by a long shot. But it is something, and maybe—just maybe—the herd is beginning to move.
As I noted back in February, the U.K. government is addressing the issue of pornography in its Online Safety Bill, which will require all porn sites to include some type of age verification system to keep children away from these platforms.
In the U.S., Louisiana has followed suit with an age verification bill, with Arkansas, Utah, Minnesota, Tennessee, and California(!) also examining different types of “content moderation” bills. Based on the pushback of the porn industry to Louisiana’s legislation, these laws hit the industry where it counts.
In a real win-win scenario, Pornhub is so angry at Utah for passing age verification that it has banned access to the site in the entire state.
France has also been pushing for age verification, and now the French government is attempting to crack down on websites refusing to comply by granting new power to its media regulator to block noncompliant porn websites entirely. In an upcoming tech bill, Politico reported, “regulator for audiovisual and digital communication, Arcom, would no longer need judicial approval to force telecoms operators and search engines to block access to Pornhub or YouPorn in the country.”
This comes after a nearly three-year standoff between Paris and the porn industry over how to implement age verification, which France first implemented in 2020. Under French rules, adult websites can be shut down if they fail to block access to minors, but the porn industry has balked, ludicrously arguing in French courts that “the text cannot be implemented and puts privacy at risk.” From Politico:
The porn websites’ lack of compliance has increasingly annoyed Paris’ policymakers. Digital Minister Jean-Noël Barrot and Junior Minister for Children Charlotte Caubelrepeatedly said the government would do everything in its power to ensure minors can’t have access to adult content. “Protecting children online is an absolute priority,” Barrot tweeted after Arcom took yet another porn firm to court for non-compliance earlier this month.
Under the current legislation, the regulator needs to refer cases of websites that don’t check users’ age to a judge, who then decides whether a platform should be blocked in France. A ruling on a high-profile case involving PornHub is expected on July 7, according to L’Informé. The new bill would allow Arcom to order the blocking and delisting of adult websites that are not compliant without having to go through a judge. The regulator would also be empowered to impose fines as high as €500,000 or 6 percent of firms’ global turnover, NextInpact reported.
The fact that French lawmakers are determined to ensure that the new legal regime is actually effective is encouraging, and the aggressive penalties aimed at the porn industry indicate a shift in how governments deal with an industry that has been preying on children virtually unimpeded for decades.
